PREMIER GIRLS FASTPITCH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – Cal A’s-Jackson 14-Under debut performance in season-ending tournament short-lived

August 4, 2025

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

The Cal A’s-Jackson 14-Under travel softball team was making its debut at the Premier Girls Fastpitch National Championships last week, hoping to have the same success that got the first-year team here. Back on June 14 in the PGF Southern California qualifier, it won three straight games in the losers bracket, one of two teams to win three games in the losers bracket after dropping its first playoff game.

That performance earned the team a spot in the Platinum Division for the PGF National Championships. But after a lackluster performance in the three pool play games to begin last week, which had no bearing on who it played in the playoffs, the team’s offense went quiet in going two and out. The Cal A’s-Jackson was crushed by the (Garden Grove) Athletics Mercado-MG 15-0 on July 30, then was eliminated last Thursday by the (Tustin) Explosion-Kim/Salazar 11-3.

“I don’t know; I don’t know if the title of PGF Nationals made them nervous or what exactly it was,” said head coach Jennifer Jackson. “I just think that their nerves got the best of them and maybe the lights were a little bit too bright, and they felt the pressure. That’s maybe all I can say because they have the talent.”

Following pool play action, in which the team went 1-2 and was outscored 20-11, Jackson told the 15 players that they knew what it had to do, and that July 30 starts the first games of the double elimination playoffs. However, first baseman Autumn Elliot was the only player to get a hit against the Athletics Mercado-MG while six of the 15 runs were earned.

“Going into that [first playoff] game, we have to be fully prepared mentally and physically,” she continued with her message. “And that we need to go out there and we   compete every single pitch of the game. We have to be in it [from] innings one through seven and we have to be great teammates. I told them our energy has to be there. Those are the things we have to have in order to be successful.”

The next day, the Explosion-Kim/Salazar scored twice in the top of the first inning and the score remained 2-0 until it added six more in the top of the fourth. The Cal A’s-Jackson responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, but it was too little, too late. Right fielder Liliana Larios (La Mirada High) went two for three and drove in a run while left fielder Anahi Regis (Gahr High) went two for four. Three other players all collected the other three hits the team would collect.

“I think today for us, in all honesty, our pitching wasn’t there,” said Jackson of the elimination game. “In the very first inning, our pitcher hit the first batter, then walked the next two. Two runs scored off that and then we just weren’t hitting our spots. That was the big thing for us today.”

However, throughout the five games, and the season. the Cal A’s-Jackson had to rely on Larios and Brooklyn Brush (Cypress High) as their only pitchers. While Elliot pitched just four innings in two games in late June, Brush (16 games) and Larios (22 games) combined for nearly 141 innings. In the five games in the PGF National Championships, Brush and Elliot combined to walk 25 batters and strikeout nine while giving up 37 hits and 32 earned runs.

“It’s huge; it was brutal for us because unfortunately, a lot of times when one pitcher was off, and we brought in the other, it was kind of the same thing happening,” said Jackson of having only two pitchers. “It definitely hurt us to only go in with two pitchers. That was a really big thing for us.”

While the pitching struggled in the PGF National Championships, the offense wasn’t quite there as it had been for most of the summer. Center fielder Edie Montano (Valley Christian High) went five for 11 and ends the season with a .288 batting average. Catcher Rylee Jackson (Gahr High) went four for 10 to finish with an average of 478, which is tops on the team. Elliot and Regis each went three for nine while left fielder Juliette Dinkle (Cypress High), Brush and Larios, with averages of at least .288, all collected a pair of hits in the five games.

“There were a lot of times that we would have baserunners on, and we could not execute to get our baserunners in,” said Jackson.

Other than the qualifier, friendlies and a game here or a game there, the Cal A’s-Jackson participated in the Zoom into June showcase tournament June 13-15 and the USA Softball Champions Cup a few weeks prior to the PGF National Championships. Despite the lack of big game experience for a first-year team, Jackson said that she learned if you focus on playing the right teams before, it prepares you a little bit more.

“But I also learned that PGF, yeah it’s a big deal, but for my team specifically, it was nothing that we couldn’t have handled,” said Jackson. “It was just we didn’t show up for PGF. Maybe we, as coaches, put maybe a little too much focus on making it a big deal rather than it’s just the same game that they play every other weekend.

“It was a great experience for the girls,” she continued. “I’m really glad that we were able to do it. I think that next year, we’re going to go into it much more prepared knowing exactly how it’s going to work.”